Rising Wrath

A young woman sets out to discover her lost past.

A fight in the Boneyard

10

FEB/14

Lamashan 27-28

Well, my first job for the city of Riddleport is done now. The druid responsible for the murders and arsons (and it was indeed the druid) has been dealt with. It was a difficult fight. She seemed to have developed some kind of affinity for insects, especially cockroaches. There were swarms of normal cockroaches, cockroaches the size of dogs, cockroaches the size of horses… I’m just glad that she didn’t turn into a cockroach the size of a house. She had gone completely insane… I can’t help but feel a little sorry for her, even though she was doing her best to kill me and my friends and even though I was prepared to kill her myself. She had apparently been a very idealistic person once, but the indifference and casual cruelty of Riddleport must have worn her down and broken her. I’d have liked to get a chance to ask her what specifically had happened to drive her to such an end, but I didn’t get the chance. I broke her staff, thinking it would help end the battle, and it did… though not at all the way I’d planned it to end. Breaking the staff resulted in the druid’s very sudden and violent death, a subject I will not go into in print, for I would like to think about it as little as possible. Suffice to say she is very, very dead. All of us came through alive, though much the worse for wear, especially Saerana.

The evening did have a pleasant ending though. It turns out that that gendarme, Jasper, had followed us out when he heard that we were going to the Boneyard that very night, and he assured us that he would see to it we were paid for our work. There was some good natured joking. Jasper said he wasn’t sure if I was crazy or serious about “this whole doing good thing,” Kyle said he thought I was crazy, and Lyssa said I was awesome. After that, Jasper took his leave, Saerana insisted we loot what was left of the druid, and we made our way back to the Mystery of the Gate, where the three of us (Kyle left after we got there) spent several hours soaking in hot baths, eating some roast beef that Zeke had been hiding in the larder, drinking good ale and cider, laughing, splashing each other, telling stories, and having a good time. All three of us wanted to forget the details of our time in the Boneyard as much as possible. I invited Kyle to join us, but he blushed and declined.